Come Skip Through the Field of Flowers With Me
by Watching from a Window
Summary: After the Uchiha massacre, when she passes him by the bridge, instead of walking off Naruto becomes friends with Sasuke. They become really close and help sort each other's problems out. How will this change the plot? Femnaru most probably will Sasunaru
1. Chapter 1

**Hello random fanfiction readers of the world! How are you today? I'm kinda in a weird mood right now so the chapter will probably have little bits of randomness in it, but hell I hope you enjoy it. **

**Yeah, the names weird but… try to look past that. You'll get the reason for it later.**

**I've had this story in my head for ages now; I just couldn't be bothered to write it up.**

**Then the plot bunnies attacked.**

**It's awful, I've got about 5 stories in my head and most of them are crap but some I could actually do but I JUST CAN'T BE BOTHERED!**

**Like I said, weird mood. Anyway, hope you like this, bye.**

**Summary: After the Uchiha massacre, when she passes him by the bridge, instead of walking off Naruto becomes friends with Sasuke. They become really close and help sort each other's problems out. How will this change the plot? Femnaru most probably will Sasunaru**

**XXSASUNARUXX**

I was walking home from school when I saw him.

Sasuke Uchiha that is.

It was a beautiful day, hot but with a cool breeze so you didn't overheat. The sun was setting; it was a gigantic round ball of orange dipping over the horizon of a lake. The lake itself was shimmering, reflecting the light, little ripples of waves running to the makeshift shore lazily. There was a pier in the middle of it all, a little wooden thing, and on the end I saw _him_ sitting there.

I shuffled along with no real hurry; I have no one waiting for me after all. Then I remembered, neither does he. It had been all over the village for weeks, the Uchiha had all been murdered by their prodigy, Itchy, or something along those lines. I hate to think what it must be like, losing your family, I personally have none but I have a fairly good imagination. Poor him.

He must have sensed me because Sasuke glanced over. I considered sticking my nose in the air and walking off, me and him don't get along after all, he's the class favourite while I'm the monster no one likes.

Plus he's a bastard.

As I was walking off I swear I saw him smiling, but I was _not, I_ repeat _not,_ smiling myself…

Okay, maybe I was, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one out there alone.

But, I know what it's like to be alone; I wouldn't want that for anyone else. Plus, we _might_ become friends.

But overall I'm bored and have nothing else to do… I will say this now; I'm doing this out of pity, nothing else.

So, when I got to the steps leading down to the lake from the hill, I trotted down them and walked over to the start of the pier.

I peered at his silhouette and wondered if I should do what I'm about to do, and decided that nothing _bad_ could happen, most probably.

With that thought in mind I started to walk to the end of the wooden planks and silently sat down next to Sasuke. For a while I was quiet, wondering what to say and decided to go for an ice breaker.

Sasuke had yet to look at me… or at least not when he thought I was looking.

"I know your probably really, really tired of hearing it, but, I'm sorry for your loss." His eyes slid to meet mine and I saw the loneliness he was desperately trying to cover up.

"Thanks." He mumbled quietly. After that neither of us talked, not really sure of what to talk about. But I'm not really a patient person, and I don't like not talking for long periods of time, so I found myself blurting out.

"Being alone sucks, doesn't it?" Sasuke's eyes which had gone back to staring blankly at the sky were immediately on mine again. It was quite unnerving actually; it was like he was lost and wondering what he should do. I could almost see the darkness creeping into his soul.

"What would you know about being alone, you have a family! I don't, not anymore." His voice had become a little bit cold, but I replied anyway.

"I don't actually," his eyes widened in surprise, "I'm an orphan, I have no family that I know of."

"Oh, sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. I never knew my parents, they apparently died the day I was born… during the Kyuubi attack." I whispered the last part.

"You were born during the attack?" His voice was defiantly interested now.

"Yeah…"

"Cool."

"Not really, I think everyone thinks I'm like the kyuubi incarnated cos' they call me names."

"Like what?"

"Demon, monster… stuff like that. They're quite creative sometimes."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it." By now both of us had turned to each other on the pier. "So, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"How's life?" I prodded

He raised an eyebrow, "Why would you care?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Nobody cares; all they care about is gossip on the 'Uchiha tragedy'. They pretend to care; they can't see I want to be left alone." He was frowning angrily and his voice turned completely cold.

"That's a lie." His head snapped to mine, surprise written all over his face. "Of course you don't want to be left alone! Why else would you be talking to me? You just want somebody to truly care, to understand you. And even if it is true that no one cares, I do! Everyone should have somebody who cares about them."

"Who cares about you then?"

"Eh?"

"Don't be a dobe, you just said that everyone has someone who cares about them."

"No, I said that everyone _should_ have someone who cares about them, not everyone _does_. And I'm _not_ a dobe!" I hissed, my anger levels were rising.

"Heh, you certainly act like one!" _That's it!_

"TEME!" I jumped up and started to stomp away. I got to the end of the pier when suddenly Sasuke called, rather uncertainly and definitely quietly may I add,

"Thanks." I almost didn't catch it, it was so quiet, but I did and my foot hovered above the ground for a second before I carried on. I had my head bowed so my hair would cover my smile and I said.

"You're welcome."

"Your still a dobe though."

Yeah, I am soooo not going back tomorrow. And if I did it would only because I like dangling my feet over the edge of the pier.

Nothing else.

XXSASUNARUXX

Oh god school was boring today, I swear that if another teacher tries to teach me the wrong way to do hand signs again I'm going to snap. I wouldn't know they were wrong if the hokage hadn't shown me the correct way to do it when I showed him what I learned once.

Out of all the teachers there I think Iruka's the only one with an actual ability to teach, I'm lucky he's my main teacher.

So there I was walking along, scuffing my shoes on the loose gravel, just letting my feet take me where they wanted to go. I hadn't even realised I'd gone to the lake before Sasuke called out,

"Oi, dobe! If you don't want to get wet, I'd stop walking right around now!" I look down at my feet to see them about half a metre from going in the water.

'_How did I get here?'_

"Are you going to just stare at your feet forever or are you actually going to do something?" Goodness how that boy has mastered bastardism at such a young age amazes me.

"Oh yes, of course, it's my main hobby. That and knitting." Rolling my eyes I went to sit next to him. Noticing he looked rather more distressed than what is considered normal, I said,

"All right, spill it." I do _not_ care, at all, I'm just nice like this.

"Nuttin'" I thought about saying _'yeah because when you look like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, your absolutely top notch.'_ But decided against it

"Suuureeee…" I replied sarcastically, seriously he needs to lighten up, it's not like I can or will tell anyone.

"…."

"…" He sighed, giving up.

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise."

"Pinkie swear?" He offered his little finger, I connected mine onto his.

"Pinkie swear with raman on top." That's like my equivalent of a sacred oath. I wouldn't normally do that for a –practical- stranger, but he looked so miserable I couldn't help myself. Plus he must be really sad if he's reverting to normal seven year old speak and letting his stoniness go down a bit.

"Eh… well… see… I... my…" He seemed to be struggling for words

"Spit it out, I promise I won't laugh." I smiled reassuringly at him and he smiled back hesitatingly. Suddenly, that smile turned into a frown.

"It doesn't make sense!" Okay, bit confused here,

"What doesn't make sense?" He sighed as if I had just asked him the most difficult question in the entire world.

"Nothing does!" Could he get anymore vague? I tilted my head to tell him to go on. He turned his entire body towards me now, crossing his legs and clasping his hands, scrutinising me like he was about to tell me something that could change the outcome of the world or something. (A/N God I love irony). I fidgeted a little bit, I don't like being looked at like that, and it was like he was trying to see into my very soul. Once he seemed to have deemed me fit, he looked at me with this oddly serious look on his face that he should never have been acquainted with at such a young age.

I mean, at seven years old shouldn't we be frolicking though woods and flowery meadows or something. (A/N Imagine Sasuke frolicking though a flowery meadow! Had a mental spazz out when I did it.)

Sasuke looked like he was limbering up for a marathon before he started to talk.

"Alright well, you know the story of when…" He took a deep breath, "Of when my clan was massacred, don't you?" I nodded, "Good, well here's my version…"

_Flashback_

(A/N Oh god, I _sooo_ don't want to have to type this out… But I will, for you ^_^)

((Actually I'm not, if you want to know what happens go to episode 120 something!))

_Flashback-that-wasn't-actually-a-flashback end_

I am absolutely_ not_ crying. The water dripping from my eyes is in fact from a condition I have where after being near water for a long period of time, the water molecules in the air condense on my eyes and start to drip down.

It looks exactly like tears!

"See what I mean? It makes no sense!" I nodded, it didn't make any sense.

"Yeah, why would Itchy-"

"-Itachi."

"Yeah that one. Anyway, why would Itachi kill everyone just to 'test his capacity' or whatever he wanted to do? Couldn't he just ask to fight one of the ANBU or powerful jonins? Hell, the old man would probably have done it, if it meant getting out of doing some paperwork!"

"That's what I thought! And who's the old man?" We were both making wild hand gestures by this point, both of us want to know what was running through Itachi's head.

"The hokage."

"Right." He seems to have gotten used to my total disregard for authority somewhere during our talk.

Then, something like an epiphany shot through my head like a lazer beam through cheese.

"Hold on, how old did you say your brother was?" Sasuke looked complexed at my question,

"Thirteen…Why?"

"So a thirteen year old boy took out the entire Uchiha clan?" I could almost hear the clogs turning in Sasuke's head.

"Yes…" I stood up abruptly, startling Sasuke so much he fell backwards a little bit, and practically yelled,

"And you people think this is _normal!_ Are you actually telling me that a _single_ _thirteen year old boy _massacred the _entire _Uchiha clan?" I could actually imagine the before said clogs in Sasuke's head screeching to a holt as he processed what I was saying. He turned slightly pale.

"But he had the mangekyo… and he was the clan's greatest prodigy…" Sasuke was almost whispering, his voice disbelieving. I could tell he hadn't thought of this. I looked closely at him and noticed he was shivering, even though it wasn't cold. It hurt a little in my heart to see him like this, thought I don't know why. Like I've said before, he is practically a stranger to me.

Before my mind could catch up with what I was doing, I bent down and hugged him. Whispering in his ear,

"Sasuke, he could've been used, or he may have been helped. There's a lot of 'ifs and buts' in this." My shirt was solidly getting wetter, "He may have even been brainwashed or just plain crazy."

"But revenge…" It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. But I did, and questions started catapulting themselves at me

"What revenge?" I didn't even realise Sasuke had been hugging me back until he unwrapped his arms and leaned away from me. Staring me straight in the face, his eyes shards of ice, he spat,

"I'm going to kill him and take me and my clan's revenge!" I briefly wandered if insanity ran in the Uchiha blood.

"Sasuke, that's the most idiodic thing I think I've ever heard! And that's coming from the person who has heard someone say their rule the world through squirrels and squid!" (A/N Don't ask). I inwardly laughed at Sasuke's expression before I continued. "If you go for revenge, you'll be playing right into his hand! Didn't you hear what he said, 'let that hatred grow and kill me with it' is basically what he meant. Don't let him control you and turn you life into one of hatred and revenge!" I seriously don't know why I'm so…passionate about this.

Sasuke's face had turned sad again, eyes glistening with unshed tears; he looked like a kicked puppy. I found myself hugging him again; I really need to stop doing this. As soon as my arms were around him though, he broke down. He threw his arms around my waist, gripping like I was his last link to life, and nestled his head in the crook of my neck, I could feel the water spreading through my shirt.

I mentally noted that this should have been awkward but somehow felt natural and I somehow found myself rubbing his back and making soothing noises.

Freaky, I know.

"I don't know what to do anymore." He uttered into my neck, I really want to know what makes him think I know what to do. However, I carefully thought about what I would do if I was in his place.

"Get stronger," he was still sniffling but I know he's listening, "not for revenge, but for defence and purely cos' you want to. I mean, before this mess you wanted to be a great ninja too, right?" He nodded from my neck. "Then train for that, don't let him ruin your life. But also, when the time comes and you finally meet him, you can confront him. You can finally find out what was going through his head. And if he really did what he did for himself, I'll help you kick his arse into oblivion!" he looked up, shocked, and I grinned at him, "I pinkie swear with ramen on top!"

SPOV

I don't know what made me trust her enough to tell her about it. But I just got this feeling from her that she would understand and help me.

Plus I really needed to tell someone.

So when Naruto told me about the other reasons the traitor could have done it that hadn't even occurred to me, I was a little more than shocked. They were pretty reasonable as well which didn't help.

And the more she talked, the more I realised that she was right in saying that he couldn't have done it without some form of help, even with the mangekyo. It just wasn't logical.

And Uchiha's are always logical; I really don't know why I didn't realise it before.

But when she hugged me, all logic went out the window, and I hugged her back. It just felt so warm and so…_right_, that I didn't even consider before I put my arms around her too.

When I told her about my revenge, first of all I was a little bit disturbed by the squirrels and squids, but I began to notice what she meant by doing what he wanted me to do. And if you ask me, doing what he says is a bad idea.

But then I felt so useless, so void. Without revenge I basically had no reason to live. I had no plan. I could feel my mask slipping again and the tears coming back.

And suddenly Naruto was hugging me again. I didn't even hesitate before I hugged her tightly and buried my head in her neck.

It just felt so peaceful there.

It was so lovely and warm; her heat just sort of surrounded me and protected me from the sadness and anger clawing at me. Her thick hair was down, blocking the rest of the world off from my sight, and the sun shone through the gold locks, making it glow.

I was like my very own little world. No Itachi, no dead people, no shadows, no darkness.

Just me…and her.

I loved it.

I could let it all out, and cry the tears that I hadn't let fall.

I told Naruto that I didn't know what to do anymore. And she surprised me. She seemed to think for a few minutes before she told me.

It was a good plan. But what really caught me was when she said that she'd help me.

And she was so sincere

I could help myself asking

"Why?" She looked surprised for a moment, I could tell she didn't really know why either. Before she seemed to settle on something.

"Because… I think you may be my friend." I could tell my eyes had widened and I could almost see her waiting for rejection. In fact she had stood up and was about to walk away

Friends… She didn't seem scared of the 'kill your best friend to get mangekyo' thing.

And it didn't seem so bad.

I stood up and grabbed her hand. She turned to me, surprise evident in her wide, blue eyes. I smiled a small smile at her and said

"Friends, I could live with that."She smiled back and slid her fingers out of my hand, before offering her middle and index fingers.

I took them with mine wondering what she was up too, before I realised that we were making the sign of harmony and relaxed and smiled at her again.

"Yeah…friends."

**XXSASUNARUXX**

**Well that's the end of the first chapter, if you like it review otherwise I won't bother carrying on with the story. I don't care if it's just a **_**single**_** word it **_**will**_** encourage me!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh my god, I cannot apologise enough for how long it has taken me to update. I feel bad inside. But you may have to get used to it, I suck at updating… And writing it seems. I'm sorry ****if**** this chapter is bad, but I wanted to flesh out their relationship before I got on to anything serious. **

**Thank you everybody who reviewed, favourited or put this on their alerts, I love you all so much and your reviews helped kick me into gear.**

**Warning: AU, Fem!Naru, sane Sasuke, majorly OCC, lots o' fluff. This is un-beta'd as I have no idea what beta-ring even is so I'm just relying on spell-check. **

**Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned Naruto, it would go a little more like this story. But I don't, so it doesn't.**

**~SASUXNARU~**

_SPOV_

"Ino-pig, move!"

"NO! You move, forehead!"

In vain did I try to tune out the two voices yelling next to me, it didn't work. It never does.

Taking a glance at the girls sitting either side of me, shrieking over my head, I hoped Naruto would arrive soon. She knew a way to get rid of fan girls that didn't involve murder.

She's so lucky.

With a bang the door to the class room slams open, revealing a panting Naruto. She checks her watch and grins when she realises she still has five minutes until the bell. I smirk slightly, causing the fan girls to swoon a little. For once I don't mind, when Naruto sees them in her seat, Bubblegum and Blondie would be visiting the nurse in a matter of minutes.

As Naruto ascends the stairs in an almost dramatic slow pace, I almost smile when I saw that as each step she takes closer to us, the tenser Dumb and Dumber get.

When she's got about half way up the stairs, Naruto glances up and frowned. What little colour Pinkie and Perky had, whooshed out of them. There was a reason the fan girls didn't harass Naruto, even though she sat next to me on a daily basis, so she could –as she put it- see out of the window.

The girl could be damn scary if she wanted to be.

Haruno and Yamanaka foolishly stay in their seats, possibly too scared to move, or they really are just _that_ thick.

The seat avenging demon [A/N I bet Kyuubi would be so miffed if he heard that… Mwahahahaha!] had just lifted her foot to stomp over here, no doubt to teach the banshees a lesson, when the resident mutt of the class decided to ruin my fun.

"Oi, Naruto, over here!" Kiba called as he pointed to a free seat between him and Shikamaru. Sakura and Ino looked towards Kiba as though he was their lifesaver, which he probably was.

I watch in growing dismay as Naruto doubled back to sit next to the Dog.

Forehead and Pig celebrate their continuing lives by screeching at each other again.

I glare at the Dog.

I am not happy.

At all.

~SASUXNARU~

I was trying desperately to scare the girls –hopefully to death- with my glare, when I heard loud cackling laughter.

My gaze travelled to Naruto and Kiba, heads together, they had an evil looking expression on, which no doubt means they are planning a prank.

I suddenly felt a very tight feeling in my stomach, one which had nothing to do with the fact that they're probably planning to prank me, and I had a vicious urge to go over there and pull Naruto back to her normal seat, next to me.

How dare that… _thing _try to steal my only friend! The mutt may not know it, but still.

That fact had me pausing. No one knows we are friends. It's kind of weird because it's not like we've been hiding it or anything, in fact, it's pretty obvious. We walk to and from school together on most days, we sit next to each other all the time, we pair up together in class and we even have lunch together!

Why is no one willing to believe we like each other?

I was shoved quite rudely out of my thoughts by another round of obnoxious laughing. Glaring at the Flea-bag, my one thought was,

'_Mine!' _

I decided to go over there and break them up, in which ever way is possible. My mind made up, I stomped over there.

Only later would I realise how childish I was.

When I got within a metre of them I said,

"Oh, look, the morons are having a convention together. I wonder what kind of idiotic things they're talking about."

I hadn't thought about how Naruto would take it. I only realised when I saw the look of hurt flash across her eyes.

I immediately feel guilty. Recently, when Naruto and I fight –yes, we still fight, it'll be the end of the world when we stop- we wouldn't really mean the words…mostly. We're still rivals, but I'd like to think we're friends before that.

So as to have such words as the ones I had just used against her, and said with such sincerity, like I honestly believed them, would be horrible for Naruto.

As everyone laughed at her and Kiba, I could see her put her mask on.

Not her overly bubbly one, no, one much worse than that. This mask blocked out all out. All people, places and emotions. Although she did smile reassuringly at Kiba, who smiled back, embarrassed.

And then Iruka walked in, exactly 3 minutes after the bell. Immediately everyone shut up and went back to whatever they were doing, everyone knows how protective Iruka is of Naruto after all.

But Narutos mask stayed on, she stared straight ahead, blankly, like nobody else was around her. Iruka almost did a double take when he saw her so still and lifeless, in fact, everyone did. We have all grown used to her loud outbursts and it felt weird not to have them and their lively speaker jumping all over the place.

After casting a concerned look at Naruto and a suspicious glare at everyone else, Iruka spotted me standing there and said,

"Sasuke, could you please sit down?" I nodded slowly and went back to my seat, the guilt weighing me down and making my demeanour somewhat sluggish.

Iruka sat down at his desk and started calling the register. The class was bereft of any noise apart from people calling 'Here, sir!'.

It was weird.

Even for me, who loves silence, it was uncomfortable. And I just knew that for the rest of the day it would be the same.

~SASUXNARU~

Walking miserably, only on the inside though, out of the front gates, Sasuke plotted ways to make up to Naruto.

He could apologise- but he was never very good at those, plus his pride wouldn't let him. Anyway, it would probably take more than a measly apology to get her to forgive him.

Treating her to ramen wouldn't work either; Teuchi had gone on holiday for two weeks, he thought as he spotted the desolate stand on the street.

And it wasn't like he could just leave her like she was, their class would probably start killing themselves.

He walked along, thinking deeply, and sighing in annoyance.

Then, the answer literally came to him in a flash.

He was passing by the older, less populated stores that led to the compound, when the sun reflected off of something in a shop window. Curious, he went up on tippy-toes to get a closer look. And there, on a little velvet cushion, were two identical necklaces.

Silver and shaped kind of like guitar picks, they had the words _'Sonzai ni naru koto ni yotte, anata wa watashi o kenshō, _engraved onto their faces. And on a little plaque next to them, it said you could get pictures engraved on the other side.

It was _perfect._

Trotting happily into the shop, he asked the old man behind the counter how much they were.

The man had a kind face and smile lines around his eyes. And although he was clutching a stick, Sasuke thought it was amazing how such a frail person could look so energetic. His grey eyes had a mischievous spark that made them look like they should belong to a child, and were currently slightly wide with surprise that a child was in his shop.

He idly thought that he and Naruto would get on well, and maybe he should bring her here.

Azami, as he told Sasuke to call him, brought it out from behind the window and showed it to him. He said it was 13,992 yen [A/N that's roughly £115]. Sasuke nodded, he could somewhat afford that, he had inherited all the Uchiha's money after all.

"So," Azami started, "who's it for? Friend? Best friend? _Girlfriend_?" He waggled his eyebrows a bit and Sasuke blushed slightly, but answered,

"Ano… best friend, I think."

"Hm… Anyway, would you like to have a picture engraved, it's a little more expensive but it makes it unique and special?" Sasuke considered for a second before nodding, it would be cool, he thought.

"Okay then, do you have a picture of you and the other person? I need to scan it on the machine."

Checking his pockets, Sasuke pulled out a crumpled picture of him and Naruto on the pier. She was smiling softly, for once not wearing the usual massive grin, and her blue eyes were shining happily. Sasuke himself was attempting to crack his face muscles and was managing a small upturn of his lips; his normally cold eyes were warm and content looking.

It was his favourite picture of them, and there are a lot since Naru found his camera.

Handing it over, Azami's eyebrow rose before he smiled,

"So it _is_ for a girlfriend, huh?" Sasuke's eyes widened before he practically shouted,

"NO! We're just close!"

Azami just smiled.

Because he didn't have all the money on him and Azami need time to engrave the picture, Sasuke walked out of the shop, empty handed for now.

When he got back, he was met with the sight of a grinning Azami.

"I hope ya got the money, cos' this one's a stinker!"

~SASUXNARU~

Sasuke stepped out the little shop for the second time that afternoon, a small velvet bag sitting in his pocket. A smug smile spread across his face as he celebrated his success.

However, his happy-high didn't last long. He paused at the end of the street.

He had no idea where he would find Naruto.

She wouldn't go back to that shit-hole if there was still sunlight, and the compound was empty, he had checked.

So where is she?

If anyone had been looking on the particular afternoon, they would have seen Sasuke Uchiha slap his forehead in shame.

He swore that girl's stupidity was rubbing off on him.

~SASUXNARU~

When Sasuke arrived at the lake-

No, their lake! Nobody else seemed to go there anyway-

The expected sight of Naruto swinging her legs on the end of the pier greeted him as he awkwardly stood at the opposite end.

Both knowing the other is there, yet not talking.

Sasuke noted the irony of the reversal of their positions. He snorted when he thought that, and decided he'd dawdled enough. He swaggered to the end of the pier as if it wasn't a make or break situation of keeping his –only- friend.

He's an Uchiha, dammit! They're not, and never were, good at all the emotional, friendship_, _gooey _things_. And it should be noted, one of the highest levels of a sincere apology is a somewhat meaningful and/or expensive gift.

It was one of the only ways, really.

Sitting down next to Naruto, he saw the slight red marks around her eyes, signs that she had been crying, but wisely refrained from saying anything.

Sasuke never was a great conversation starter, so for a few minutes he enjoyed the calming view of the lake and the soothing sounds of the mini waves lapping up on the beach behind them.

Building up his nerves, eyes stubbornly looking at his hands, he said,

"I'm s-s…sor-…sssss…" he really was having a hard time saying it, damn pride, "Sor…ry?" Glancing at Narutos face he could see that he had her attention, but his words were making little sense. Sasuke took a deep breath.

"I'm Sorry! I didn't mean to say it! I won't say anything like that ever again, promise!"

Naruto finally looked up, "Why were you so mean, teme? We were doing nothing wrong."

"I-I…" he clenched his fists "I didn't like seeing you with him!"

"You didn't like seeing me with him?" She repeated slowly, Sasuke bowed his head shamefully.

"Well, yeah." Seeing her raised eyebrows, he was quick to defend himself. "You're _my_ friend he has no right to steal you from me!" It came out louder and angrier than he meant it to be. After half a minute of silence, she said,

"Sasuke, you'll always be my best friend, you know that, right?" he nodded, "Good." She turned back to the water, looking satisfied.

Sasuke was thinking of his apology and how un-Uchiha like it was. Uchiha's apologise with… Oh yeah.

"Um, Naruto?"

"Hmm?"

" I got you this to say sorry." He handed her the bag. As she pulled out the black cord the charm hung from, he showed her his from where it was already around his neck.

"See, this way we'll always be close to each other's hearts." He said as she pulled out the charm with his picture on, he had the one with her face. "I thought they could be special, to u-"

He was unceremoniously tackled hugged. Now, normally, he wouldn't have minded. But since he was near the edge of the pier, she pushed them both right over the edge and into the water.

He emerged, coughing, and glared at a soaking, grinning and still hugging him, Naruto.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me!" His glare softened for a second and he hugged her back briefly before he pushed her off.

"Still, there was no need to tackle me! Now I'm soaking!"

"That's revenge, Teme. Anyway, I just thought your hair would be more at ease with its brethren." She gestured to a nearby flock of ducks.

The glare returned.

"I hate you."

"Love you too, S'uke!"

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Did you really?"

"Yes, only yesterday, in fact."

"_Really_? I don't remember."

"That's cos' you're a dobe."

"Grr, I told you to stop calling me that!"

"_Did you really?_"

**~SASUXNARU~ **

**I know, you honestly didn't believe it could be that crap. But it is. *sighs* I'm a bad author. **

**Anyway, sorry the tenses keep changing and for any grammatical errors, I kept coming back to the story and so the tense and plot went everywhere. Hope you haven't lost hope in this. **

_Sonzai ni naru koto ni yotte, anata wa watashi o kenshō: according to google translate, this means 'by being in existence, you validate mine. I thought it was cute._

**I got the idea for the necklace from the cover of chapter 411 of the actual Naruto manga, check it out here: **

**.com/manga/naruto/v44/c411/**

**Actually, I pretty much got my inspiration from this image… so yeah. **

**Until next time I bother to update. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Yes people I am alive, though this chapter almost killed me to finish. I figured that it's been 3 months since I last updated and I was pissed at myself, so I made myself finish. Plus, I got a death threat, so I thought it was about time this got done. Anyway I hope you enjoy.**

**Btw, **_Fire Dolphin_ **did you read my mind?**

**Warning: OCC, bad grammar, bad spelling, bad plotline, bad writing, bad everything. And I wrote this while I was ill so… yeah, its gunna be awful. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would have made at least a side story with Sasuke and Naruto together by now. **

**XXSASUNARUXX**

As Sasuke walked to school, he just knew it was going to be a bad day. Clouds rolled throughout the sky, dark and ominous. The shop keepers of the street he was on were hastily pulling tables of produce inside, all the while staring with distaste at the clouds, and if they consciously had chosen to rain today just to spite them.

Yes, he decided, today was definitely going to be a bad day. And not one he wanted to spend at school.

As he shuffled into his seat of the classroom, the fan girls finally decided to leave him alone after they had learned neither he - nor Naruto, were morning people. Just for the morning though. It was a great success in Naruto's eyes, and she decided that she wanted to train them to become their (her) secret army for when they (she) took over the world.

The only flaw in her plan was that Sasuke, the 'motivator' (i.e. only person the girls would actually listen to) wasn't exactly in the mood to take over the world... Yet.

Maybe after he'd used the rabid fans to kill Itachi for him in the most embarrassing way an S ranked missing Nin had ever been killed, he would.

It made him smirk just thinking about it.

Five minutes later, Iruka strolled in. He, also not being a morning person on miserable days such as these. He glared at any noisy kids and told them, using only his eyes, that if they didn't get to their seats _pronto_, they would not live to even _see_ the genin test.

The little brats scampered to their seats.

Sasuke sighed, what he _wouldn't_ do to be able to control people like that.

It was only after another five minutes that Sasuke got worried. Normally, Naruto would have arrived when Iruka did, usually carrying bags or coffee for the chunin. After meeting Sasuke, she seemed to have toned down on the number of morning pranks, so she was nearly always there in the morning.

Emphasize the '_nearly always_'.

Fifteen minutes after the bell went; Sasuke was seriously beginning to think about sneaking out to find her.

When said spiky haired girl finally arrived at the door, she seemed fidgety, like someone was going to stab her at any second, and didn't seem to be paying attention to the shouting Iruka.

It was sort of like she was in a daze.

Or still asleep.

Sasuke snorted, it would be just like the dobe to sleepwalk all the way to school.

When Iruka had finished with his rant, she simply mumbled something about her alarm not going off and doors getting stuck before walking to her seat.

I slipped into my seat as Iruka-sensei gave me one final glare before sitting down to call the register. From next to me, Sasuke gave me a worried look and tilted his head in question. I nodded back to him to assure him I was fine, trying to ignore the guilt weighing me down from lying to him.

I don't like lying to him; he sulks for _days_ when he finds out.

But I don't want to burden _him_.

He'll get mad in righteous anger -on my behalf of course, because I'm way too used to it to get annoyed anymore- and then get irritated when he can't do anything because he's too young and 'powerless'.

_Then_ he'll get in a huff with me because I won't join him in his crusade to the Hokage's office to demand that Jiji do something about it.

He doesn't realize the old man is doing all he can.

It's sweet he cares though. Hopefully he'll help me find a new place to live; it's boring flicking through newspapers and looking for cheap enough flats on your own.

Yep, that's right, some bastard burned down my apartment building.

_Amazingly_, no-one was harmed. It probably helped that because the place was so old and was practically crumbling away, so hardly anybody lived there. And the few who did were probably warned.

Well, all of the few except for me.

It's a good thing I had run out of food; otherwise I wouldn't have been out at a take-away and away from the building.

I was startled from my thoughts by a piece of chalk slamming onto my forehead. My head was literally snapped back by the force of the throw. Rubbing my, no doubt, red forehead, I glared at a glaring Iruka.

"Naruto! At least have the decency to _pretend_ you're listening!" Iruka-Sensei yelled from the front, his big-head-no-jutsu making his head well… _big_.

Huge.

Massive.

Colossal.

_Tremendous_.

So enormous that if the universe looked at his face, it would run away whimpering with its tail between its legs.

Another piece of chalk hit my forehead.

"For goodness sake, listen!" A vein on his neck was sticking out quite noticeably. I nodded and said sorry quickly in case he exploded. I hoped he wouldn't, Iruka was one of my very few precious people.

It would be a shame to be the cause of his death.

Sighing, I strategically turn so it looks like I'm watching Iruka, but I'm really staring out of the window. I hope no-one (CoughSakuraCough) annoys me today; I'm just too tired to deal with it right now.

Naruto had been ignoring me all morning. I don't_ think_ it was intentional, she just didn't seem to be registering my furious whispers of her name and the jabs delivered to her ribs.

She was either ignoring me (I told she's moody in the morning), or something was going on with her.

To test, I whacked her extremely hard on the head with my notebook.

Snapping out of whatever daze she was in, she shot me a foul glare before pointedly dismissing me to turn to Iruka's 'very important lesson' on knots.

Sense the sarcasm.

_Well_, I thought,_ if she wasn't ignoring me then, she is now._

I decided I didn't like that.

It was me after all; she can't get mad at me just for hitting her. Otherwise, we'd never actually be friends and would be in a constant state of absolute and foolhardy war.

I say foolhardy because it would obviously be her win. She'd sniffle and flash adorably (not that I'd ever admit it) wide eyes and my will to hate her would crumble like a dry cookie.

Well, I'd give her a taste of her own medicine. I stuck my nose in the air (well, metaphorically. I didn't want the mutt to ask me what was so interesting about the ceiling... Again) and decided to ignore her for the rest of the day... Or until she woke up enough that she wouldn't bite my head off for glancing in her general direction.

Whichever one came first, really.

I was betting on the rest of the day.

It was at first break when she finally, completely woke up.

Sasuke had turned around to get a snack from his bag, with a grumpy and still agitated Naruto to his left emitting an aura of doom.

And when he turned back, it was to whom he liked to refer to as 'day Naruto'. In other words, the normal chipper blonde.

The change made his head spin. Where there was once an aura of imminent death was now a aura of sparkly flowers and rainbows.

It made him feel slightly nauseated.

As soon as he had turned around, Naruto was at a go. Speech blurred in her race to verbally vomit the last twelve or so hours of events that had happened to her without Sasuke.

And Naruto was in no way introverted.

After fifteen minutes of what sounded like kidnappings, murders, dragons tech-napping her microwave, hacking for top secret governments, and a cup of tea with the Daimyo and the Hokage, he was seriously wondering why he hung out with her in the first place.

He was tempted to interrupt her monologue, but he had been around her long enough to know that he would be completely ignored.

Breathing deeply, Naruto grinned sheepishly at him and rubbed the back of her head.

"So," he said in a dry voice. "Anything else happen?" It was obvious that he didn't believe her, but the oblivious blonde didn't seem to notice and immediately thought he meant something else.

"Nope," She said way too fast. "Nothing at all! Zilch. Nada. Méishénme [1]." At his raised eyebrow she laughed nervously and looked away quickly. Scanning the room for a subject change, she said the first thing she thought of.

"Look," she pointed. "Is Shino wearing new sunglasses?" Obliging to her change of topic, he looked. And indeed, Shino was wearing new glasses. He wondered how she had noticed, as the change was so small it was hardly noticeable. Even he didn't see.

But then again, he wasn't exactly looking.

Asking her the question, she replied with a one shouldered shrug and a wink. "Amazed at my pure awesomeness, aren't you?"

Walking out of the hell that some individuals called school; Naruto had never felt so relieved. And believed it would only get better and better every time she walked out of the Kami forsaken place.

She truly and honestly believed that she would one day die a gruesome death at the hands of a monologue-ing Iruka, going on about the different types of grips kunai offer for the umpteenth time.

Walking next to her, hands in pockets and occasionally glaring at, well, _everybody_, was an irate Sasuke.

She guessed that even he had to get bored after such an awful lesson.

What really annoyed her, though, was that the lesson didn't serve to distract her from her problem at all. If anything, it gave her more time to think about it.

And dammit, her brain was not made to think!

Well, it was, but…

See!

Anyway, now all she needed was an excuse to get away from Sasuke and she was good to go.

"Can I come to your apartment today?" She jumped from the unexpected question. After all, Sasuke hardly ever wanted to come to her apartment. He said it wasn't fit for human habitation and that it should be demolished.

She inwardly snorted at the irony.

Oh why must _today_ be the day he actually wanted to go round hers?

"Ano, why do you want to come? You hate it there, don't you?"

"I think I left something there." She was so screwed. She needed to stall him.

"How can you be sure it's at my place?" He turned to her, dark eyes holding the beginnings of suspicion, head tilted to the side, considering why she was so reluctant.

Why on earth did he have to be a genius?

"Why don't you want me to go? You'd normally jump at the chance to spend some time at your house." She faltered, unable to think of a reason to stop him coming. Taking advantage of her silence he turned in the direction to her apartment, thoroughly ignoring her spluttered objections.

The obnoxious arsehole.

Unwilling to give up, she stubbornly turned in the other direction, heading towards a safe hiding place. AKA the Hokage's office.

He was set on going to her place, and she doubted her ability to stop a suspicious and worried Sasuke when he wanted to know what was going on.

He'd have to find out eventually, anyway.

Her only consolation was that she wouldn't be around when he exploded.

She sensed him before she heard him.

The sense of imminent death for those who had crossed him.

She cursed the fact that the Hokage was in a meeting and she couldn't hide under his desk.

Silently making sure the tree she was hiding in covered her completely, she held her breath and waited. Soon, the crack of breaking twigs could be heard, along with the squawks and flapping of birds as they fled the approaching danger.

Naruto wished she could join them as they flew to safety.

Soft yet thundering footsteps continued until they stopped relatively close to her tree. Her heart was thumping so loud she was pretty sure _he _could hear it.

Apart from her heart, there was silence. Not even a breeze broke it.

She heard him shuffle a little on the ground. It was evident he had already found her, so why wasn't he confronting her?

Whatever the reason, she was glad. She didn't want to see the pity on his face.

After five minutes, he gave up. He wasn't the most patient person after all.

He jumped onto her branch and silently held out a hand. She took it, not looking at his face, lest she burst out crying or laughing.

She herself was too messed up by what had happened to know what she'd do.

Still not saying a word, he indicated that they were going to jump down, making sure she'd seen it - as her attention was solidly fixed on the swirls and contours of the oak she'd chosen. It was an old one, certainly, for it had many leafy branches and was very tall.

She had hoped it would have hidden her well.

That failed.

Once they were safely on the ground he started to lead her back through the village, not once letting go of her hand. She was tempted to point out the health and safety warnings about jumping off trees while holding hands that Iruka had taught them, but elected to stay silent when he glared at her.

It wouldn't surprise her if he said could read her mind.

Sasuke snorted from next to her.

Pursing her lips, she let him drag her to wherever it was he wanted to go and instead opted to watch the stars. It was only when they got to the Uchiha complex that she paused; she had thought for sure that they were going to the_ Hokage_.

Pulling her through the door of the main house- his house-, she decided she was confused. Naruto really thought he would have been yelling by now.

Instead, he led her down a hall and pulled open the door to the room opposite his.

_The guest room_, her brain provided. She had been over his house enough to know the layout of the complex.

Shoving her through the door he -for the first time- broke the hand connection and left her there. A minute later and he returned with what looked like fabric.

Throwing the thing at her head he turned to the door and said,

"Welcome to your new room. Leave or argue and you die a very painful death."

He shut the door in her face.

Shocked she stared down at the clothes in her arms, having instinctively caught them.

It was an old shirt and some shorts.

_Nightclothes_, the non-freaking out part of her brain told her.

She shrugged and decided she's sort this lunacy out in the morning.

She was too tired.

**XXSASUNARUXX**

**Sorry if it ended abruptly, but my brain started to hurt. **

**1. Means nothing in Chinese (according to Google translate… I really need to stop using that.)**

**A one worded review does actually help, so try it.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I am so so so so so so so so so so so sooooo sorry for taking so long with posting this. If I'm honest, I had it done ages ago, I just didn't know if I wanted this to be the way I wanted the story to go… That probably makes no sense to you, but still. Sorry, and I apologise for my slow updates. It was only when a reviewer pointed out that I had last updated two months ago that I decided I might as well post this. So anyway, please enjoy.**

**But the next chapter might take a while because I have a stubborn case of writers block and I can never be bothered to type out chapters, if I could connect my brain to the computer so my story writes itself out from my brain, I would update a lot faster. I'm just really lazy. **

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto, if I did… *evil laughter*

**Oh yeah, and thanks to my awesome beta **_**The King in White**_

As Sasuke stepped through the door, he knew something was wrong. None of the lights in the house were on, in spite of the fact that it was dark outside, and no noise could be heard from any of the rooms.

The Uchiha was worried a little. After all, Naruto regularly pops out to visit the Hokage, Iruka or just to go train.

Or, he remembered with a little annoyance, one of the few older friends she had somehow made without Sasuke's knowing. Friends without the grudge of the village poisoning their minds against the little girl.

He heard a little snuffling sound from down the hall- effectively breaking him from his thoughts- the noise coming from one of their bedrooms. As he drew nearer, he realized it was from _his_ room.

Cautiously he - slipping his hand into his kunai pouch while doing so - opened the door.

Squinting in the darkness – for the curtains had been drawn; blocking what little light the other rooms had from entering the room- he could vaguely see the outline of a person next to the bed.

A person hugging their knees, trying to make themselves as small as possible, shoulders shaking.

His eyes softening, he approached the figure and sat down next to it, drawing the person into a hug.

A sniffle next to his ear confirmed his suspicion that Naruto was crying.

Patting her on the back awkwardly - he'd never been good at consoling people - his mind was still reeling from the fact that _Naruto_ was crying. Even after all the crap the villagers put her through, she _never_ cried. She said she'd given up long ago, as it never got her anywhere. And Sasuke knew exactly how she felt.

Frowning he tightened his hold, promising himself that whoever had upset her would pay.

"I hate them so much, Sasuke." Her broken whisper startled him. After all, it wasn't that long ago that he would have to force her to tell him if something was wrong.

"Who's that, Naru-chan?" He asked - though he had a pretty good idea. She shuddered in his arms, a new sob rising to her throat.

"The villagers," she gasped. "Them and their cold eyes." She tightened her grip on him. "And not being able to fight back." She whispered.

Sasuke was glad for the restraining arms around him, they were the only things stopping him from murdering every villager he could find. Impossibility be damned, he'd _find_ a way!

Still, he had to check; to be sure his rage was justified. He didn't want to be like _them_ after all.

"Did they hit you?" He nearly growled the words, red dotting across his vision at just the thought of it happening.

She paused, then nodded against his chest.

The red completely overtook his vision and he struggled to get out if the confines that were his best friends' arms. For her part, Naruto didn't seem to notice, quite content just to stay where she was and cry on his shoulder.

She hated to show such weakness, but at the moment she couldn't care less. Her body still ached from the hits she had received before, and her mind still ringed with the hateful words that had been spat in her face.

She remembered the men who had surrounded her, cursing and beating, and for the first time, Naruto Uzumaki felt _hate_.

From above her she heard Sasuke sigh.

He had marginally calmed down. After all, if he murdered everyone he wanted to, he'd remind himself of _Itachi_.

A prominent and angry voice in his head growled if that was how Itachi felt when he murdered the clan, he could almost understand him.

Looking down he sought out Naruto's eyes, finding them amongst the masses of curly blonde hair, they refused to look at him.

How he hated to do this.

"You shouldn't hate them Naru-chan."

_Hypocrite_ he thought. _How can I tell her not to hate them when I do?_

"Hate twists people; remember when you first met me? Well it's like that but worse. It sends them to all sorts of dark places," Her shocked aquiline eyes met his. "And you're not that kind of person."

She rubbed her eyes "Really? What kind of person am I then? Because I honestly don't know anymore."

"You're Naruto; social perimeters don't apply to you. You're a whole new sort of person." He grinned at her, "But, in all honesty, you are the kindest person I've ever met, Naru, and you have the biggest heart in all the five nations."

She blearily looked up at him.

"I'm tired, Sasuke." She mumbled.

"Then go to sleep."

She smiled wanly, "No… I'm tired of being polite to them just to have them throw it back in my face. I'm tired of forgiving them for hating me for something I haven't done. I'm tired of being treated like… like a monster. And most of all, I'm tired of having to smile through it all, 'cause if I don't smile I'm afraid of crying." She clenched her hands around the fabric of his shirt, giving a miniscule shake. "What should I, the person with the 'biggest heart in the five nations', feel towards them?"

_She's stumped you there, huh?_

"How about contempt?"

_Contempt, Sasuke? Why on earth contempt, you idiot, why?_

"Why contempt?" It seemed Naruto agreed with the voice in his head

"Because," he fished for ideas. "Because, when you're one of the greatest shinobi in the village they'll all be clamouring over themselves for you to recognize them."

Naruto curled up against his chest as he spoke.

"Really?" She mumbled softly.

"Of course."

And he meant it.

With that she fell asleep.

Sighing he picked her up and lay her on his bed, under the sheets, then joined her a second later.

They had regularly slept together- it stopped the nightmares.

He thought that tonight it would be better if he was with her.

Nobody wants to be alone, after all.

**Hope you enjoyed it and I'm sorry it's quite short.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, it'd be nowhere near as popular as each chapter would take about a decade to come out. Plus, the art would suck.**

**Warnings: AU, a tiny little weeny bit of language, OOCness and loads of fluff**

**A massive thank you to my beta; The King in White. As always, you're awesome**

XXSASUNARUXX

Naruto didn't quite know what she had done to deserve this.

Well, she did. But she still thought it was a bit of an overreaction. After all, all she had done was a little bit of improvement; spruce things up a bit, you may say.

Looking over her shoulder at the twenty something chuunin angrily following her, she wandered on her chances of convincing them to her point of view. They weren't high.

Catching sight of her masterpiece, her estimation dropped a few places.

So, yes, she may have 'defaced' –their words, not hers- the Hokage monument in a fit of hopefully-soon-to-be-genin excitement; but she had honestly not meant to spill that tin of red paint on the 3rds face! Especially when you saw the position of the spill.

Right under his nose. It looked like she was accusing him of being a pervert! She wouldn't do _that_, she had respect for the old man.

Though she did call him a pervert to his face nearly daily.

But that wasn't important.

What was were the rapidly gaining chuunin and-

Was that a _jonin_?

Shit.

Calling on all her luck, she quickly pulled out her invisibility cloak. Or fence disguise, it depended on the type of day she was having.

Turning round the corner, she quickly pulled it on, praying to Kami that they didn't see her.

It seemed to work as the various people sprinted past her, missing her by about an inch. As she waited, holding her breath, as the last person shot by, she felt her adrenalin rush slow down as she realised she was safe.

Grinning, she lowered her invisibility disguise and, sticking out her tongue, mockingly saluted the retreating backs of the various ninjas who thought they were still on her trail. The idiots.

She turned around to go hide in the woods, as she so often did after her various pranks, not wanting to lead people into finding the truth about where she actually lived, and smacked straight into a warm wall.

Or, in other words, Sasuke.

A viciously glaring Sasuke.

She gulped and tried to guess her chances of surviving.

They were pretty high, but that survival would probably be pretty painful.

She nearly hoped for death. Nearly.

Breathing through his nose, Sasuke all but growled, "Naruto, we agreed, no more vandalising!"

"But-"

"No buts! You didn't even tell me you weren't going to come to school!" Looking very much like an irritated mother, crossed arms, disappointed face and all, Sasuke was about to go into full out rant mode when she was quite literally saved by the other mother-hen in her life.

"Sasuke? Naruto?"

A flummoxed looking Iruka rounded the corner of the street, bathed in the light of the sun and with a choir of chubby flying babies with harps flying around his head.

But once he seemed to have gotten over his initial shock, the aura of light seemed to rapidly darken and the babies turned into waves of anger.

Naruto knew it had been too much to hope for.

"Naruto! What have you _done!?_" Not waiting to give her a chance to reply, he turned to Sasuke. "I thought you said you had to go and get something from your house!"

Sasuke, ever the model student, bless him, had never felt the wrath of a teacher before and clearly didn't know how to function under such scrutiny. Opening and closing his mouth in an eerily reminiscent way of a fish, he floundered for some sort of excuse.

Taking pity on her best friend, Naruto pushed in with,

"Me? I've done nothing wrong, sensei!"

Iruka made an amazingly scary expression at her proclamation of innocence, slow head turn and all.

"Nothing wrong?" He hissed lowly.

"Err, Sensei?" Quite rightly freaked out, Naruto 'eeped' and tried to hide behind the still astonished Sasuke for protection, regretting taking the attention off of him.

"_Nothing wrong." _The murderous expression on Iruka's face would bring lesser beings to their knees, begging forgiveness for whatever their wrong doing.

But not Naruto.

Ever the knuckle-headed idiot, she chanced a peek out from behind Sasuke and balked at the ominous aura and expression of her normally calm teacher.

"_NOTHING WRONG?! _NARUTO, YOU DEFACED A PRECIOUS VILLAGE MONUMENT!"

Minutes later, Naruto was tied up in front of the class, sitting perfectly still from the threat Iruka had issued that if she so much as moved a _millimetre, _she'd be held back a year.

Sasuke had been saved from her position as by the time Iruka had dealt with his blonde haired friend, he had forgotten all about him.

From her position on the ground, Naruto glared at him jealously. He simply raised a smug eyebrow in response.

If looks could kill, he'd have been the meat the Aburame clan fed to their more carnivorous kikaichu.

XXLINE-BREAKXX

Later, when she was being held under the watchful eye of Iruka as she washed the paint off of the Hokage monument, Naruto got what she considered the mother of all shocks.

"So," Iruka began unassumingly. "Are you ready for the genin exams?"

She very nearly fell off the Shodaime's nose.

"_What?!"_ She screeched. Iruka raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her.

"Weren't you listening to me at _all _after the transformation test?"

Naruto thought about the pounding a blushing Sasuke had given her after she had done the Sexy no Jutsu and decided not to tell Iruka how she'd been unconscious for most of the day.

She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Err… no?"

Face-palming, Iruka sighed and settled in for a rant. "Naruto, this will be your _third _genin exam. You can't afford to mess it up again! Have you even been practicing the clone technique? It's your worst one after all."

Smiling to hide her worry, she was quick to assure him, "Of course! I'll be fine, Iruka-sensei, I've had you as a teacher, after all!"

Though not believing her in the slightest, Iruka smiled back to hide his own uncertainty. Trying to cheer both of them up, he said,

"Hey, Naruto, if you finish cleaning off this paint in the next half hour, I'll treat you to ramen."

Smiling for real this time, Naruto turned back to the monument. "You're on, Sensei!"

Anyone that looked at the Hokage monument for the five minutes after that declaration would later swear they saw the Yellow Flash return to clear the paint off his stone face.

XXLINE-BREAKXX

"_Demon!"_

"_Monster!"_

"_WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"_

I shot up, falling from my bed in the process, clutching my head in an attempt to block out the voices that _wouldn't go away._

"_You killed them! You killed them all!"_

Groaning, I got up. Resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn't be getting anymore sleep tonight. My normal err… dream keeper away-erer, had locked their door in chastisement for the sexy jutsu thing for the last _week_.

_And_ the door to the medicine cupboard, so I couldn't get anything to make me drowsy, either. Sasuke would worry in the morning when he saw the dark shadows under my eyes, but there wasn't anything I could do about that.

Looking around for something to do for the rest of the night, I spotted the perfect thing. A while back, Sasuke had told me that if I had time for pranks, then I obviously had too much time on my hands. He then promptly handed me some paper, a pencil and an order to scribble.

Me, not liking the thought of less pranking than I was already doing, told him that if he had enough time to worry about my pranking habits then he obviously _also_ needed a hobby. He gave me a superior look and told me he'd take up a hobby of my choice if I did some drawing.

I told him to do baking. Sasuke, the son of a traditional family where women were mostly the housewives and did a lot of the domestic work, wouldn't like the idea. At all.

True to form, he didn't. He scowled foully and said that I was being an idiot and to give him a real hobby. I then threw the paper and pencil at him and told him the same.

He cracked two days and a glittering orange Uchiha compound later. He swallowed his pride and I was treated to the hilarious sight of him wearing a frilly pink apron while baking cookies. It was his mother's, apparently.

But that of course meant I had to follow up and start painting, sketching and just generally doing art. This leads us to now. Picking up a medium sized canvas, I set it on the side of the wall at an angle and fetched my paints. Briefly stopping to switch on the lights, I sat cross legged in front of it and started.

I had got decent in the years that I had been doing it, as you do with any skill you use regularly. Though Sasuke had said I was a natural from the very beginning. I told him that I'd rather be a natural at taijutsu or something, after all art isn't useful in the ninja world.

The thing I was doing at the moment was going to be Sasuke's birthday present. I looked at it again and snorted internally.

_Natural talent my arse._

XXLINE-BREAKXX

The next morning, I awoke to the delightful sound of angry bangs on my door. The banger, most probably Sasuke, did not sound happy. In fact, if I listened, I could faintly hear the calm, happy thoughts in his brain being obliterated by an army of irate mini-Sasukes.

"Naruto, wake the hell up! We're going to be late!"

Cracking open my eyes, I realized that I had fallen (quite literally) asleep on the floor. I was still in front of my painting and not far from my hand was the paintbrush, leading me to believe that I had collapsed at some point during the night.

The tranquility of my early morning half asleep thoughts was broken, once again, by the sound of someone trying to break down my door. Thankful that I had locked it in case Sasuke saw my light on at night and come to investigate, thus putting him direct view of his birthday present to be.

I groaned and heaved myself up. There's a high possibility of the door crashing down at any moment and there is no way I'm letting him see me slumped on the floor. He'd freak. And then he'd find out about the bad dreams. Then, he'd freak some more.

His mother hen qualities are really rather amazing for someone who's meant to have more testosterone in their body than oestrogen.

Stretching and hearing the satisfying cracks of my spine I turned around to look for a cloth to cover the painting. In doing so, I caught a glimpse of my very own ramen calendar. With a sickening feeling in my gut and a quick check of my clock I realized why Sasuke was so desperate for me to wake up.

It was the genin exams today.

Ripping open my door (the lock taking way too long to fumble open), the still hammering Sasuke ignored as he fell to the floor- the momentum of his knocks on a surface that was no longer there too much for his balance, I ran to the bathroom.

After hectically doing my morning routine in three minutes flat, I ran back into my bedroom to get changed. Pausing only briefly to kick out a still tapping Sasuke, as he bemoaned to the floor how we were going to be late to the _third_ genin exam.

It's the idiot's own fault for not waking me earlier.

Kind of.

XXLINE-BREAKXX

Sitting in line for the genin exams was probably the tensest moment of her life so far, Naruto mused.

She had lived a sad life, she then decided.

Next to her, as they were sat in register order, Sasuke's leg bounced minutely up and down –the only indication he was at all nervous. Naruto envied him for that, she had deviated in the last few minutes from jumping up and down, squats, screaming inside her head and a bout of hysterical laughter that only served to freak everyone in the corridor out.

The person before Sasuke in the register had just been called into the testing room, meaning, that in the next 10-15 minutes their lives as ninja would be decided.

In response to his imminent doom, Sasuke had stopped the bouncing and instead had gone stock still and reverted to his –as Naruto called it- 'brooding' pose. Steepled fingers, shadowed eyes and all.

In Sasuke terms, it was equivalent to an imminent mental breakdown.

Nudging him reassuringly, she murmured. "How on earth can you be worried? You're top in our class!"

Sighing, he whispered back. "It's not me I'm worried about, it's you."

Naruto didn't know whether to be offended or touched. Obliviously, Sasuke carried on.

"I wish you were before me on the register, I'd know whether to fail or not that way."

"Hey, you know…" She trailed off, not knowing how to continue. "You should just do what you wanna do,"

"-Naruto." He breathed, realizing where she was going.

"No, listen to me! You should stop letting me drag you down! Become a genin, we both know you have the capacity to do so, hell, the whole village knows so –people will be suspicious if you fail! So go on, without me, I don't mind."

"Naruto," he said firmly. "Shut up. You haven't even taken the exam yet." His voice held a hint of exasperated amusement. "You have a good chance of passing if you _focus_, just like I taught you to –you need three clones, only three." He squeezed my clenched hands; I wondered when he had moved it there. "Plus, we made a promise," he sent a smile at me. "No leaving the other behind, right?"

"Uchiha, Sasuke!" Mizuki's voice called down the corridor, luckily, our hunched over positions veiled our clasped hands from everyone.

Still smiling slightly, Sasuke looked me in the eye and said,

"Our friendship was built on promises, Naruto, and now's not the time for either of us to be breaking them. You'll do fine, trust me. I'll see you on the other side." And walked off.

Bending my head so my long hair obscured my face (I'd left in down in our rush to get here this morning) I smiled bitterly.

_It's myself I don't trust, Idiot. _

XXLINE-BREAKXX

"Uzumaki, Naruto!" I gulped, it's my turn.

I walked into the room, where the already seated Iruka gave me a reassuring smile, hitae-ate glinting mockingly in the sunlight.

I'd tried it on last week, and I remembered my vow to get it back… permanently, as well as a certain Hokage hat…

Grimacing at my own actions, I thought about how easy it is to act confident about things you view as far off in the future.

Doing a headcount of the leftover forehead protectors on the table and a bit of nifty maths that boggled even my mind, I worked out that Sasuke had, indeed, passed.

Although expected, it still made my stomach drop slightly. I hoped I wouldn't disappoint him.

Mentally slapping myself, I told myself to buck up. I'd do this. I'd get one of those new, shiny hitae-ates and I'd damn well con the old man into putting Sasuke and me on the same team, just like we'd planned on the days when we'd had far too much time on our hands.

Things will work out. They have to. I refuse to let Sasuke try and stint his own progress for me.

Gird your loins, Konoha! Naruto Uzumaki is becoming a ninja today, even if it kills her!

xxENDxx

Hehe, still alive, kind of. Exams suck. Teachers seem to think that unless they pressure us _every single day_, we will forget that something that will change our lives (sort of) is going to happen soon. But it's still no excuse as to why this is taking so long.

To be honest, I'm just so lazy that my procrastination habits have made me watch/read and then turn to other fandom's, ensuring that the CSTTFOF's plotline is not the only one in my head. As such, although I don't post them, I have loads of plot bunnies jumping around in my mind and this story kind of gets pushed to the back. It does not help that recently the Naruto manga/anime seems to be losing their point and is leaving me rather disappointed and unmotivated. Point is, although I'll try and update quicker, don't hold your breath. I have no idea where this story is going; I'm making it up as I go, so it's likely to be unstructured and jumpy in the timelines.


End file.
